Children's Centres in Southern NI

If you run a Centre...

Children's Centres have been developed throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland as places where parents and children can go to find out about anything to do with families all under one roof.

Different childrens centres have different facilities - many have a pre-school or nurseries, some also have toddler groups, classes, and activities that you can get involved in. Some also run support groups, and have special advisers at particular times for you to talk to.

Some Children's Centres can be a good source of information on local childcare, as Family Information Services officers will hold outreach sessions at the centre, and are a great place to meet new people and make new friends too!

Children's Centres in Southern NI in Armagh, Bangor and Newry

Sure Start in Northern Ireland is funded by the Department of Education and the funding comes to each project through its local childcare partnership. Each project offers a cocktail of services dependent on local need.

Many of the sevices offered are on an outreach basis especially in rural areas.

Our criteria for all services are that the families live within the geographic area, which is defined by ward and have children under the age of 4.

Sure Start run various courses eg Cook It!, self esteem and parenting courses and also regular and seasonal activites like Rhyme Time, summer activity programme, trips and so on. All of our courses are supported by creches, we offer transport where necessary and all of our services are free to the families. We also operate a home visiting service by our Parent Support workers and offer additional support through our Family Support Social Worker. We have a Speech and Language Therapist on the team, several hours of Health Visiting service and we work closely with our Community Midwives.